Man sentenced 50 years to life for councilman's murder

KGO

August 30, 2010 11:01:11 AM PDT

SOLANO COUNTY, CA --

A Solano County judge this morning sentenced a man convicted of killing Fairfield City Councilman Matt Garcia to 50 years to life in prison.

Several of Garcia's family members and Fairfield Mayor Harry Price addressed the defendant, Henry Don Williams, in the Vallejo courtroom of Judge Robert Bowers at an emotional hearing that lasted about an hour.

"You are exactly the kind of broken people my son wanted to help," Garcia's mother Teresa Courtemanche told Williams.

"You did not kill his spirit," she said. "You are not capable of doing that."

Garcia, 22, was shot once in the back of the head outside a friend's home on Silverado Drive in Cordelia at about 8:15 p.m. on Sept. 1, 2008.

Prosecutors alleged in the trial that Williams, 33, and his co-defendant, 46-year-old Gene Combs of Suisun City, targeted Garcia after mistaking him for a drug dealer who owed Combs $50.

A Solano County jury convicted Williams of first-degree murder on May 28.

Williams addressed Garcia's family in court this morning.

"Words cannot express how I feel now for the loss of your son," Williams said.

He said he has a son of his own who will turn 2 at the end of September.

"I missed his birth, his first bath and his first words, and everything I wanted to provide for him," Williams said.

Combs, who was tried separately, was convicted of second-degree murder on June 3. His sentencing was postponed this morning until Sept. 27.